Left knee swelling prompts Reis to rest

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Concerns over persistent swelling in his left knee have prompted the New England Revolution to take a cautious approach with goalkeeper Matt Reis early in the 2013 season.

Reis has featured in two games for the Revs, keeping a pair of clean sheets in a 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire and a 0-0 draw with Sporting Kansas City. But postgame swelling has hampered Reis on both occasions, forcing him to miss follow-up matches against the Philadelphia Union and FC Dallas.

“Nothing’s showing up in terms of major damage,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “But there’s a little bit of pain, a little bit of swelling and we just want to manage that.”

With a bye on the schedule this upcoming weekend, the Revs saw the perfect opportunity to rest Reis for last Saturday’s meeting with FCD. The club’s medical staff has indicated the injury simply requires time to heal, and taking back-to-back weekends off while only missing one game was a natural solution.

“We knew we had the bye week,” said Heaps. “It was one of those where we said, ‘Alright, let’s get him extended rest so we can really calm this thing down.’”

Heaps noted that Reis could probably push through the injury “if it’s a playoff game,” but with 30 games still remaining on the regular-season schedule, the Revs are keeping their focus on the long-term.

The hope now is that this two-week break provides the rest Reis’ knee requires and allows the veteran goalkeeper to get back to stopping shots as soon as possible.

“Hopefully he continues to respond and get better,” said Heaps. “Right now it’s day-by-day, not so much week-by-week. We want to have him for the rest of the year just like we want to have Bobby (Shuttleworth) for the rest of the year and have all our players. If we think pushing them through is going to hurt them in the long run, then we wouldn’t do it. With Matt, it was the right time to rest him.”